Heydon Hohaia performing at Parachute Festival, 2009
Throughout pre-production, Heydon Hohaia and I have been working on original songs for the film.
Well, when I say we've been working on them - what I really mean is I visit him, he performs his latest song for me and I proceed to offer my cringe-worthy two cents...
"Can we make it more blues-y?"
"Hey! How about you sing the entire last chorus a capella?"
"What if... instead of with guitar, you played the spoons with it? Can you play the spoons??"
...for a split second Heydon will peer over his glasses and then appease me with answers to my hair-brained suggestions. Fortunately for us, he only listens to me about five percent of the time when it comes to the music.
Then... it's our mandatory game of FIFA on PlayStation, where I always 'let' him win... for um, morale reasons. Yeah, that's it. The first rule of making films is you've got to keep the talent happy. Except occasionally, I'll mess up and accidentally win and then have to pretend to be excited that I was 'finally' able to defeat him. If you're reading this Heydon, it's time you faced facts - don't make me Wayne Rooney yo ass. Yeah, you know what's up... (cough).
In all seriousness, I don't have the musical expertise to offer insightful technical feedback regarding songwriting structure so I simply try to respond to the songs at a basic emotional level. It's refreshing because it's one of the few instances when I'm the audience on my own project, as I have a strong overview of every other aspect of the production. Being that there are many similarities between Heydon and the character he plays, I've offered him a lot of creative freedom with the writing and producing of the songs.
It's important to our documentary framework that the music be performed with authenticity and woven as seamlessly into the fabric of the narrative as possible. Although I have admiration for the choreography and production design in musical genre films, I've always found it really contrived when characters break into an epic song and dance number whilst lip syncing to a pre-recorded soundtrack.
Sweeping camera movements and dynamic editing can provide for dazzling visual sequences, however I'll always contend that the best format for a musical is seeing the live stage show. I'd suggest it's akin to watching a band perform live as opposed to seeing their concert on DVD. Last July, I managed to catch the Broadway show Next to Normal in New York and it was thrilling to witness world class performers on stage with no editing tricks to hide behind.
Movie versions of musicals certainly have the capacity to mask deficiencies in singing ability. It seems some actor's voices are so digitally spliced together that a robot super computer may as well be performing. I haven't seen Mamma Mia, but what few seconds I have seen of Pierce Brosnan in that role make me shudder. Why would he do that to himself?? He was James Bond for crying out loud!
Pierce Brosnan in the hit musical Mamma Mia
For realism purposes, songs in the film will be performed acoustically and recorded in one take on location. Although it's an opportunity to witness Heydon's talent as a vocalist, the songs are an outlet for a character with musical prowess. And it's a vulnerability and immediacy to the character that I aim to capture through a lack of editing; our strategy is to utilise technology to support the performance rather than the other way round.
Okay, I'm starting to feel bad about dissing Pierce Brosnan. And I probably shouldn't make snap judgements about a movie or performance without seeing it in it's entirety.
So, does anyone out there in Internetland wish to accuse me of jumping to conclusions about Mamma Mia and actually recommend that I spend two hours of my life watching it??
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